Lacie
by applepie1989
Summary: The golden watch that played her song. Perhaps this was how it all came to be.


_**A/N**: Retrace 80... Oh my dear lord, how much more angst and tragedy can one man brings to the entire cast. I love it! And Jack, I still hold you dear in my heart. _

_I shall not spoil for anyone but my dear friends, Retrace 80 is here. And i bet the next retrace will be an epic tear jerker (i hope). _

_This story has been on my mind since yesterday and thought i should write it out. :) The writing is crude. But i hope you like it._

**Rating: **K+

**Disclaimer:** I don't own _Pandora Hearts_ because if I did I will have known everything and cry in happiness and sadness. T_T

* * *

**Lacie**

A Pandora Hearts fan-fiction

* * *

"Gilbert. Where is Vincent? He is not with you today."

"Vincent? I do not know Master. I think he should be at one of the rose gardens today."

A pair of golden eyes looked at him, a shy smile on the child's face.

"I see…"

Glen Baskerville gazed out of the window to the bright blue sky that looked down on this world, a world without _her_. The world moved on, despite the blood… despite all the deaths and the souls that had departed… even without her…

Violet eyes glazed as Lacie's voice echoed in his mind.

"_I love this cruel… yet beautiful world…"_

_It is cruel Lacie…_

Glen sighed, putting down the feathered pen he had been using to sign some unimportant documents the butlers had placed on his table. He turned to Gilbert, his small successor and found him standing at attention with his hands holding a tray of tea and biscuits.

Glen gave a small smile at the boy's enthusiasm in being a good servant, though… he was not in a mood for tea yet. The Baskerville lord stood up and wore his signature cloak over him, the weight of the cloak only served to remind him of the importance of his duties, the blood he had on his hands and what he had done to succeed it.

Glen looked to the clock at the far end of his chamber and gave a small weary sigh.

But yet, somehow, the mansion seemed to be brighter than before and he knew who caused it.

_He is here._

"Master?"

"Come Gilbert. We shall find Vincent and have tea together with a guest."

Gilbert followed his Master out of the room as his face perked with a small trace of excitement. "A guest? You mean Jack-sama?"

Glen glanced at his young successor and violet eyes softened.

* * *

"Jack-sama!"

"Oh! Good day little Gil. I hope Glen has not worked you too hard as his servant," the golden haired Vessalius smiled warmly as he placed Vincent down and gave him a small hug, mindful of the tray in the boy's hand.

"Being Master's servant is never tiring! It's good to be able to see you again Jack-sama," Gilbert beamed as he leaned into the hug, enjoying the warmth of the smile and touch given by this beautiful man who rescued them almost three months ago. Glen watched the scene, unreadable violet eyes taking in Jack's expressions.

"That is good to hear and I can see I have come at the right time for tea," Jack gave a lilting laugh and looked to the Baskerville Lord, their gaze met. "Good day Glen. Do you want to have a round of chess after tea? Before seeing _**her **_together?"

Glen gave a small sigh. "Gilbert, Vincent, set up the garden terrace for tea with the servants there. We will be there shortly."

"Yes Master! Come on Vincent!"

"Wait Brother! See you Jack!"

Jack waved the two boys off as Glen took in Jack's appearance of an average green overcoat and outdoor attire.

"Jack."

"Yes Glen?" Jack asked, looking at the man with seemingly amused eyes, though the raven haired man knew the younger's eyes did not reflect any.

He could not read the man… even when he first beheld the man in his sight at that ball. It intrigued the Baskerville… and yet made him cautious.

But, throughout the four months when _She_ was still in this world, the love Jack had for _her_… it was real. That one emotion he saw in that man's gaze at the Baskerville mansion as he first held_ her_ in his arms.

True happiness.

All the emotions he read on the younger's face during those months. Embarrassment, Surprise, Confusion, Joy… Glen never saw such emotions reflected back in those emerald eyes again…

Strangely enough, he wanted those glows to return back to the man's eyes… but he understood. Because he was the same… they both had lost a part of themselves that could never return.

"Glen?"

Glen's mouth twitched as he reached out, fingers gently yet gingerly touching the man's cheek. Glen took in the small jump of the younger's body at his touch and his heart lulled in the younger's warmth.

Despite it all, Jack… was perhaps the one and only person who knew him… and this comfort was addictive and dangerous…

When Jack finally returned to the mansion and knew of Alice's existence by the previous Glen, wanting to share the burden of this secret of Alice, the Baskerville Lord let go of Jack's a_udacious_ question he had asked at the Lake, wanting to believe Jack had accept the reality of _her_ fate. The past months with the appearance of his successor and the child of misfortune, he wanted to believe that the two of them were friends… perhaps brought together by _her _for companionship in _her_ departure… They were opposites of each other, yet they got along under the weight of loneliness, grief and the burden of the secret known as Alice. Though he had never revealed to the younger man, Jack's presence in his life… had become a light he had come to treasure in this dark world.

But yet, deep down, there was a dull hole in him, a black abyss that somehow refused to go away.

"Os…wald?"

Violet eyes re- focused on those searching emerald eyes in surprise of hearing his old name from the younger man's lips, his fingers rested on the lip's softness. Glen blinked and gave a sigh, realizing he had done an uncomfortable deed to Jack and dropped his hand.

"Jack, shall we head to the terrace? I believed we had stayed too long." Glen strolled ahead; the softness of those lips still lingered on his fingertips. He heard Jack's footsteps following him after a decent pause and silence and he clenched those fingers, as though wanting to hold that warmth a little longer.

"You know Glen," Jack's voice floated into his ear softly from behind, "…shall we collaborate?"

"What do you mean?"

Jack gave a small laugh, "I have nothing much to do at the Vessalius's mansion… and I have thought about this for a while. A keepsake perhaps… for you to keep around with. A pocket watch."

"Why?"

"I want… us to create something together… as a token of our unusual friendship."

"A watch…"

Glen paused in his steps and turned to look at Jack, who looked at the sky.

"Not just any watch…" Jack breathed, closing his eyes with a gentle lift of the ends of his lips, "A watch where _Lacie_ lives on." And that tune fell out of his lips in gentle waves, filling the quietness that surrounded them. In the midst, _her_ voice echoed in their minds.

Glen's heart leaped as he watched Jack came closer till the younger man was standing at arm's length before him; the last note of that song rang to silence.

"I will make a watch worthy of _Lacie_… for both of us. If you will let me," Jack whispered, as though pleading to the raven haired to allow him to rebirth_ Lacie_ in this new form.

"_Brother, I love this tune. Does It have a name?"_

"_No… but since you love it… then it's yours." _

"_Aren't you glad you have a fervent admirer of your music dear brother, of Jack?"_

"_It is only because it is his only connection to you… And it is your song… _

_Lacie is a good name for it." _

"Then, I will be waiting… for this watch to be created."

With this soft answer, Glen resumed his walk to the terrace, knowing the Vessalius would follow him.

Behind Glen, Jack Vessalius looked at the Baskerville with unreadable eyes, his expression dark, so different from the personality he had portrayed himself to be. Dark swirls in his eyes softened into a gentle green, his mind set out to craft out his… no _their_ watch.

Despite all his plans, despite all these lies and deceptions the golden man had carefully executed in the dark, for his gift to _her_. He wanted to create this in the midst of it all.

This single joy Oswald... has created for _her,_ that the Vessalius wanted to put in a beautiful box to be treasured and reborn in a new form.

To his beloved's dear brother who was no longer in this world, the brother who loved_ her_ dearly.

Not the cold indifferent Baskerville lord in front of him.

_Oswald… in your memory, this is my thanks to you… for accepting me and for Lacie…_

"It shall be a gift, that we will both treasure deeply." A whisper.

The blood would be shed in the future... and the world had to be delivered to the Abyss where she was one with.

And this watch… shall go together with them and sing _her_ song.

That sad yet beautiful tune that_ she_ loved so much.


End file.
